The Dublin Cookery School show us how to whip up a delicious dinner of pumpkin laska with salmon and pak choy.

Ingredients

Serves 4

Paste:

  • 2-5 green chillies (start with 2 and add more as desired)
  • 2 cloves garlic, peeled
  • 4 lemongrass stalks
  • 2 x 3 cm pieces of ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
  • zest of 1 lime
  • Large handful coriander, leaves, and stalks

For the pumpkin:

  • 1 small pumpkin (approximately 350g) or a butternut squash, peeled, halved, deseeded and chopped into bite size cubes 400ml
  • Tin of coconut milk 250g chicken or vegetable stock
  • 4 tsp fish sauce, or more as required
  • 1 head pak choy, roughly chopped
  • 100g dried rice vermicelli noodles, soaked in cold water until soft
  • 450g salmon, skin removed, cut into large bite size cubes

To serve:

  • 1 birds eye chilli julienned (optional)
  • juice of 1 lime
  • Handful of coriander, roughly chopped

Method

For the paste:

  1. Chop 1 cm from the bottom of the lemongrass and remove about 3 cm from the top. Discard.
  2. Peel the outer layer of the lemongrass and discard.
  3. Chop the lemongrass roughly along with the chillies.
  4. Combine all of the paste ingredients in a food processor. It may need a few tablespoons to get it properly blended. Scrape down the sides and blend again.

For the rest:

  1. Heat some oil in a large wok. Add the spice paste and fry over medium heat for a couple of minutes. Stir continuously and don’t allow it to colour.
  2. Pour in the chicken stock and coconut milk and bring to the boil. Add the pumpkin and simmer until the pumpkin is tender, approximately 10 minutes. It will absorb the flavours of the laksa as it cooks.
  3. Flavour with fish sauce. Taste and check to see does it need more chilli (it should be fairly spicey) or more fish sauce.
  4. When the pumpkin is cooked, add the pak choy and the salmon. The pak choy will wilt quite quickly, and the salmon will take 2-3 minutes to cook. Drain the noodles and add them to the laksa. Stir to combine.
  5. Just before serving, add the lime juice and the chilli (if using) and top with the roughly chopped coriander.